Full Frontal PR Report

The following was written by RLM’s CEO, Richard Laermer, and VP, Michael Prichinello. It was intended as a sidebar in their book Full Frontal PR: Getting People Talking About You, Your Business, or Your Product, but the vagaries of editing and layout kept it from publication. Enjoy!

There’s a breed of PR people out there that can get the meeting, do the interview and chat it up all day long on the phone with journalists. They have an anemic press book, though, and the buzz meter isn’t reporting the faintest blip. The shortfall in coverage reflects a disinterest in following up. Getting the meeting is exciting, sure, but closing the deal and getting the coverage is where the big payoff is. To get there, you have to be aggressive with the follow up.

One of the secrets of great PR is knowing that if you want to read what you’ve pitched, you’ve got to work it until it goes to the presses. If you’ve got the best three-point average in the NBA or you’ve just run down a dozen people in suburbia, don’t worry, the press will want the story, no pitch needed. If you’re the one asking for the coverage though, you have to follow up to keep the journalist as excited in your big idea as you are to get the story filed.

What can kill your story after an interview? Hundreds of factors. One is that a journalist might like your story, but there’s just too much research that needs to be done and not enough time to do it. Make sure that at the conclusion of any interview, you get a list of deliverables, things you need to send to the reporter so their job can be done. By doing the legwork, you’ve increased the likelihood of the story running ten-fold.

Another story sinker is that another pitch crosses the transom, and that PR person is just a better sales person. This job is a battle of the personalities. You need to stay in front of the person you’ve interviewed with so they don’t forget you, so that you’re top of mind. Never give them enough time to be distracted. It they are, the first three paragraphs they’ve drafted will land in the “to do” pile and die a painful, miserable death.

More times than not though, a story dies because journalists expect you to keep on them. If you don’t, they figure it just wasn’t as important as they thought it was. Getting through the interview is just one step of PR, not the end-goal. After your conversation, you need to shift gears to get to that highly circulated finish line, so continue to forward the journalist relevant material, ask them questions and stay in touch.